WILLIAMSTON – Yvonne Binns’ holidays are a little less bright this year. She's battling a staggering electric bill that she didn’t know she owed.

For years, she said, she’s been on a plan with DTE Energy Co. that spreads payments out evenly over the 12 months, rather than have them spike during the bitterly cold months.

The monthly electric bill for her family of six was $328 on the BudgetWise plan. In July, DTE informed her that she owed more than $5,000 in current and back payments. And massive bills kept coming.

DTE spokeswoman Marquia T. Mann said the company wouldn’t comment on an individual case — even with approval from Binns — but did acknowledge the company's billing problems when it switched to a new program in 2017.

“Our team has worked diligently to resolve the issues that caused these billing problems, and to generate and send corrected bills to impacted customers as quickly as possible. Impacted customers are not subject to collections measures and/or service interruptions during these billing situations,” she said in an email.

In other words, those incorrectly billed won‘t be cut off from electricity. That’s cold comfort to Binns who said she won’t be able to pay it off — ever.

DTE is already under fire from the Michigan Public Service Commission for billing and shutoff mistakes. It was fined $840,000 Dec. 20 for errors that led to improper shutoff of 5,000 customers last year.

Though Binns hasn't lost her electricity, she sees that as a possibility in 2019.

Binns, 63, and her husband, 67, are retired and live on Social Security. A son and his family live with them in their 1,800-square-foot modular home in a rural area. Money is tight. They use a well and need electricity to pump the water. They heat with electricity. After bills are paid, she said they have about $100 left over each month, and that's with the $328 electric bill.

As best as she can glean from multiple calls to the company, the problems with incorrect bills started to accumulate in March 2017, adding up to 18 months of under billing.

She was billed $328 in June, $5,197.56 in July, $900 in August, $1,472 in September, and $2,044 in October.

She said she’s gotten the runaround from DTE. When she called about the higher bills in July, she said she was told to ignore the billing and pay her uniform monthly rate.

But the higher bills kept coming, bills she shared with the State Journal. The $6,000 notice was delivered as a “friendly reminder” Nov. 26, the Monday after Thanksgiving.

What a way to kick off the holiday season.

“How can you do that to a person? Make them think it’s all fine and then hit them with a $6,000 bill right out of the blue? Bam. All of a sudden. I don’t know how they can do this to a person,” she said.

Binns contacted the state, finally landing at the Michigan Public Service Commission, which offered her mediation through a three-way call earlier this month. After that, DTE told Binns they would reduce the amount owed by $1,000 then spread out the rest of the money owed in a payment plan.

That will push her bills starting in January to $843 a month.

Nick Assendelft, a spokesman for the Michigan Public Service Commission, said he could not comment on an individual case.

Binns is working on filing a formal complaint with the commission.

Assendelft said state rules allow utilities to go back a year to recover undercharges but should take the customer’s income into account when setting payments.

Binns said she’s reached out to a number of charities for help with her payment, including the Salvation Army, but has been turned down.

Though she said she's been told she didn’t qualify for help unless her electricity is cut off, Lynn Sutfin, a spokeswoman for the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, said past due notices, not just shut off notices, also qualify for assistance, under a state program operated with the Salvation Army and other charities.

Binns is discouraged. She said her family is being careful in its electricity use, turning off lights in empty rooms, for example, though that hasn't always been the case.

“I tell everybody I now know why senior citizens eat dog food. If I can’t pay for my electricity, I can’t live here because I have a well. I don’t get water if I don’t have electricity,” Binns said.

Judy Putnam is a columnist with the Lansing State Journal. Contact her at (517) 267-1304 or at jputnam@lsj.com. Follow her on Twitter @judyputnam.